pediatric housecalls Robert R. Jarrett M.D. M.B.A. FAAP

Grover Cleveland

President Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, the only one to serve two nonconsecutive terms.

During his second term, he consulted a doctor about a sore inside his mouth, which was determined to be potentially cancerous. He decided to have the lesion removed but wanted the surgery kept secret to preserve the nation’s financial stability and his own political position.

Doctors aboard a yacht removed the tumor from inside his mouth, without using any external incisions, and then implanted a rubber prosthesis to correct his speech and appearance. One of the surgeons confirmed the story years later to a newspaper.

All of the Above

Although the term “alcoholic” was not used back then the way it is now, van Buren was certainly known as a heavy drinker. The eighth president’s alcohol consumption was linked to a variety of health ailments, including gout.

Pierce, on the other hand, was widely known as an alcoholic. When asked what he was going to do when his term ended, he reportedly replied, “There is nothing left…but to get drunk.” The 14th president of the United States reportedly died from cirrhosis of the liver.

Grant, the 18th US president, also was known to consume large quantities of alcohol, but whether he should be characterized as an alcoholic has been hotly debated.

Fast-forward to 2001, when “W” Bush was inaugurated as the first president to openly admit to past alcohol abuse, saying that he quit in 1986 and never drank again.

But wait… there’s more!

Other past presidents who have been associated with excessive alcohol use include William Howard Taft, James Buchanan, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Adams, Grover Cleveland, and Richard Nixon.

Chester A. Arthur

Chester A. Arthur became the 21st president when his boss, President James A. Garfield, was assassinated in 1881.

President Arthur struggled with health issues while in office and was diagnosed with Bright’s disease, a broad term that is no longer used in medicine.

Today, his condition would be described as chronic nephritis. Like other ailing presidents, he tried to keep his illness a secret, but he died a year after leaving office.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

President Eisenhower had just announced his decision to run for re-election in 1956 when he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease (then called ileitis).

Soon after his diagnosis, he suffered a severe attack and underwent emergency surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. He had survived a heart attack just a year earlier and would suffer a stroke the following year.

Although his health was a public issue, Eisenhower was re-elected later that year by an even wider margin than in his first election. This man was elected for his actions, not his talk!

Woodrow Wilson

President Wilson suffered a serious stroke in October 1919, during his second term. He was paralyzed on one side and his vision was severely impaired.

His condition was kept secret for weeks, even from members of his own cabinet, and his wife Edith managed his schedule and delegated tasks as needed.

Within a few months his paralysis became public knowledge, but there was no process in place for replacing him as president. The situation eventually led to passage of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which resolved the handling of a disabled president.

8

William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, Warren Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, and John Kennedy all died in office.